Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

19th Century, Free School, Exeter, Collyns Medal, 1819, a silver award, unsigned, seal of St John's Hospital with three men with upraised arms above a castle gateway, eye of God looking down from above, rev. armorial shield and crest of Charles Collyns, 45mm (BHM –; Grimshaw –). Some rim bruising and surface marks, otherwise about very fine, toned, rare (£60-80)

The Collyns medal, instituted by Alderman Charles Collyns, was awarded annually by Exeter School between 1819 and c. 1865 to the pupil who composed the best piece of Latin hexameter. Collyns, an Exeter ironmonger by trade who rose to become a banker and partner in the Devonshire Bank from 1789 until its closure in 1810, served as mayor of the city in 1802 and again in 1807